A Modular Microarray Imaging System for Highly Specific COVID-19 Antibody Testing

Abstract

To detect the presence of antibodies in blood against SARS-CoV-2 in a highly sensitive and specific manner, here we describe a robust, inexpensive ($200), 3D-printable portable imaging platform (TinyArray imager) that can be deployed immediately in areas with minimal infrastructure to read coronavirus antigen microarrays (CoVAMs) that contain a panel of antigens from SARS-CoV-2, SARS-1, MERS, and other respiratory viruses. Application includes 2 basic laboratories and makeshift field clinics where a few drops of blood from a finger prick could be rapidly tested in parallel for the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 with a test turnaround time of only 2-4 h. To evaluate our imaging device, we probed and imaged coronavirus microarrays with COVID-19-positive and negative sera and achieved a performance on par with a commercial microarray reader 100x more expensive than our imaging device. This work will enable large scale serosurveillance, which can play an important role in the months and years to come to implement efficient containment and mitigation measures, as well as help develop therapeutics and vaccines to treat and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Multiplexed Detection and Quantification of Human Antibody Response to COVID-19 Infection Using a Plasmon Enhanced Biosensor Platform

“…Multiplexed testing enables detection of immunoglobulin binding to more than one antigen within a single tube, well, plate or slide. These include, but are not limited to MIAs such as Luminex-based assays (Ayouba et al 2020; Randad et al 2020), fluorescent protein microarrays (Hedde et al 2020), and direct/label-free array technologies (Steiner et al 2020). The key challenges with these approaches are achieving high sensitivity, and low rate of false positives (selectivity), and quantitative measurement of immunoglobulin concentration/titer across a large dynamic range.…”

Predicting COVID-19 Severity with a Specific Nucleocapsid Antibody plus Disease Risk Factor Score

“…Ep9Abs. Furthermore, no response was observed to Ep9 in pooled plasma from healthy individuals.The protein microarray COVAM analysis is a high-throughput serological test for SARS-CoV-2 Ab cross-reactivity with a panel of 61 antigens from 23 strains of 10 respiratory tract infection-causing viruses(22). In this assay, each antigen was printed onto microarrays, probed with human plasma, and analyzed with an ArrayCam imager.COVAM distinguishes betweenIgG and IgM Abs binding to the full-length N protein (Fig.…”

Laboratory diagnosis of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19)

“…Linear regression analysis of microarray fluorescence intensities revealed R-squared values > 0.85 between different imaging platforms. This platform has the advantages of low-cost, high-throughput, and can handle more than 100,000 samples, potentially valuable for serosurveillance in COVID-19 patients [90]. In addition, Tan et al designed a microfluidic ELISA test for quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein and anti-SARS-CoV-2 S1 IgG using humanized SARS-CoV-2 IgG and recombinant S1 protein, respectively.…”